9mo not having recommended amount of milk

[MaverickSnoopy]

DD has never drunk the recommended amount of milk and I have posted a few times about it. Prior to weaning she was on average having 20oz a day, with a very rare day of approx 25oz. She also only has stage 1 formula as the 6+ stuff makes her constipated.

Since weaning this has reduced to between 15oz - 17oz (3 bottles a day - although some days she only wants 2). Today for example she has had 4.5oz and then 0.5oz. She's just not interested, never has been. She's now on three meals a day and has dropped between 3-5oz in exchange for solids. She's blw so takes what she wants but doesn't eat vast quantities so I don't feel there's anything to reduce. I have tried reducing but she still drinks the same amount of formula anyway (so it feels pointless) so I'd rather she had the food that she's asking for.

She refuses anything that I mix formula in with, ie macaroni cheese, custard etc. She categorically will not eat baby cereal including porridge and won't eat weetabix. So generally I put cows milk in my cooking and make sure she has yogurt twice a day, cheese once a day and then something like custard too. I'm not quite sure if this is enough or too much but my main concern is iron and anything else she's missing out on. She has a lot of hummus, beans, tomatoes and some green veg so she's getting some. We probably eat meat 3 - 4 times a week so she has that too. I've tried putting formula in a beaker but as soon as she tastes it she spits it out...but she'll take water!

I'm looking for a bit of guidance as I'm feel uncertain about the whole thing.

Is she gaining weight? Producing wet and dirty nappies? Happy and alert?

I don't think babies read the instructions and it's an average requirement.

My DD did this and now at nearly a year old is increasing the amount she takes. Just makes sure she gets calcium in other forms and if she has less than 17oz of formula a day give her vitamins.

Baby's do want they want and there is not much you can do about it.

Just checking that you are offering milk before food? As blw I am assuming that is what you are doing?

My ds once he got to 8 months his didn't want much milk and I tried expressing as I thought maybe he just didn't want to breast feed, he still didn't want to drink milk. He was gaining weight and a healthy little thing so it was ok imo, he did have breast milk in porridge/baking etc and liked yoghurt so did get a small amount of milk from that.

My dd is now 8 months a she doesn't want a lot of milk either but she's growing properly so I don't worry about it. Dd does have breastmilk porridge and she loves cheese, has Greek yoghurt.

I honestly wouldn't worry, keep giving other calcium sources. Babies do what they want and each baby is different

Mine never drank milk. I BF until he self-weaned, about 10 months. I was desperately trying to get formula into him but he would only drink water. I made porridge with formula and put a bit in scrambled eggs etc but I think I was worrying over nothing - he's fine now and eats like a horse. As long as she's getting a varied diet, calcium through cheese, yoghurt etc (mine would live on yoghurt if he could) which it sounds like, it's totally fine.
I had another mum get a bit concerned when I said he didn't drink milk but the health visitor said not to worry. Ironically he has recently started to want milk (he's 2.5)!

She is thriving - happy, healthy, wet nappies etc. She has milk on waking and breakfast an hour later. Then she has one bottle at around 11/12 ish depending on how late she woke and then lunch an hour later. Her last bottle of the day is bedtime (7 ish) and dinner is probably at about 5ish, but she takes the most amount of milk at bedtime so I'm not worried about that one.

I'd completely forgotten about vitamins! I will give them a shot. I have spent a lot of her life worrying about milk intake. She used to drink more and each time she's been ill it became less and less, never going back to what she'd had previously. Since weaning I've been less worried but recently she been skipping her middle of the day bottle which just seems preemptive, especially given that I've not increased her food. You've made me feel a bit better though. I'll stick with what I'm doing and add vitamins into the day.

By way of example she just had her morning bottle and only had 3oz. Just doesn't seem like very much after not having anything since 7 last night.

My daughter was like this. I did as you did plenty of dairy etc. She never drank the recomended amount or more than 4oz at once but she was growing fine.

It's doesn't matter that she isn't on follow on milk BTW, that's just a marketing con. First stage milk us absolutely fine. And the 20oz is a guide which she isn't far off. I would do vitamin drops so you can be reassured she us getting what she needs but sounds like she knows her own appetite.

My DD is 15 months and was exactly the same as your DD at that age, even down to the amounts you quoted. I gave her a multi vitamin and made sure she had lots of calcium rich foods. Her appetite increased massively at around 12 months and now she regularly eats more than her 4 year old brother. Try not to worry, babies are very good at self regulating their diet.

Thanks all. I feel better now and have started her on the vitamins, which weirdly she is very happy to have!

I knew that follow on milk was a marketing thing but I had thought that there was more iron in the follow on....there must have been as it made DD constipated and her poo went green....same as when she eats lots of cabbage! TMI!

Anyway, I'm much happier now and do accept that she's always had less than other babies, it just makes me so twitchy as DD1 always had more than other babies. Interestingly they were both roughly the birth weight, 8lb 8oz and 8lb 10oz. Looking through the red books they're both tracking on the same percentile and DD2 weighs pretty much what DD1 did at this age but they both eat/ate enormously different amounts. I find it fascinating....just got to stop worrying!